


day fifteen: favorites

by Hannah (hannahoftheinternet)



Series: HartmonFest 2019 [15]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Crack Treated Seriously, Established Relationship, Flirting, Kissing, M/M, POV Cisco Ramon, POV Third Person, Present Tense, Relationship Reveal, Secret Relationship, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:39:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahoftheinternet/pseuds/Hannah
Summary: Cisco and Hartley are desperately trying to keep their relationship a secret, but word spreads fast on a small starship.





	day fifteen: favorites

Cisco picks at a piece of lint on the cuff of his uniform. Engineering is quiet today, with no warp core breaches or containment problems to speak of. He’s probably jinxing himself. Now they’re totally going to get attacked by the Borg.

A figure appears in front of his console and he looks up to see Lieutenant Hartley Rathaway, a tactical officer who transferred on from the USS Hamlin a few months ago.

“What’s up, Lieutenant?” Cisco asks, turning his attention away from the lint on his sleeve.

“I’m in charge of our battle simulations this quarter, and I made a schedule, but I want to make sure I’m not putting too much of a strain on the engines,” Hartley says bluntly. He extends a PADD for Cisco to review.

Cisco rises from the engineering console and points to the upper level on engineering. “That’s a good precaution. I’d be happy to help. All the specs are at my upper workstation.”

“Let’s get started.”

They take the little open air lift up. There’s almost no one in Engineering, thankfully. It’s shift change right about now.

They get up to Cisco’s workstation and Hartley immediately hauls him in for a kiss. Cisco responds happily. For the first time in 48 hours, they have a moment alone. And it’s not a big ship.

Still kissing him, Hartley pushes him against the console, which chirps angrily as someone’s stray finger brushes it. A whoosh from the direction of the lift catches Cisco’s attention, and he turns his head to break the kiss. “Did you hear something?”

“I hear a lot of things,” Hartley says, pressing kisses along Cisco’s jaw. “Specifically?”

“Shut up,” Cisco orders, and recaptures his boyfriend (are they boyfriends?), only to have Hartley pull away a second later with a curse.

Cisco turns his head. “Holy—”

Doctor Caitlin Snow stands near the lift, looking very uncomfortable. “Lieutenants,” she says, not looking at them. “I need Cisco for a physical at 1400 hours. Captain Wells wants to assign him to the bridge crew for the battle simulation.”

“I’ll see you later,” Cisco promises Hartley, who huffs and takes off to the other side of the upper level. Cisco jogs to catch Caitlin before she gets on the lift, shame heating his face. “Caitlin. That was… embarrassing.”

“I’m not going to say anything,” she says, before he even needs to ask. “It’s your business.”

Cisco takes a deep breath. “Thanks,” he says sincerely, but his face doesn’t cool off for the next few minutes.

The next time he sees Hartley is after his physical, waiting for the turbolift that will take him to the briefing for the simulation. He knows Caitlin won’t betray them, but he still wants to ask Hartley: “Do you think she’ll say anything?”

“There’s no reason for her to,” says Hartley placidly, stepping through the doors of the lift when it arrives. “We’re not breaking any rules. It’s not a health violation. Deck one.” The doors close and the lift whisks them upwards.

“But we should be careful. We shouldn’t go into the briefing at the same time. You go in first, I’ll go in a minute later.”

Hartley won’t look at him, just stares at the doors of the lift. “You’re acting like we did something wrong, Ramon.”

The use of his last name irritates Cisco more than it should. It’s like they’re just colleagues, like they haven’t been kissing at every available opportunity for weeks. “I thought we wanted to keep this to ourselves,  _ Rathaway _ . We do, right?”

“Do you?”

That doesn’t answer the question. “If you want to.”

Hartley finally turns to look at him. “Computer, halt turbolift.” The lift obeys. “Let’s figure this out now. I don’t think our relationship is anyone’s business.”

“Neither do I.” Cisco holds Hartley’s gaze. He still wears glasses, even though a surgery to fix his vision would take maybe three minutes. Cisco’s actually pretty attached to those glasses.

“Then we agree.”

“Right.” He watches Hartley’s Adam’s apple bob. “We’re just more careful in public and we don’t say anything for now.”

Hartley turns back to the doors as he says, “Sounds like you see a future in this.” He’s trying to sound offhand, but the hopefulness in his voice didn’t get by Cisco.

“I would never be so bold,” he says, trying to copy Hartley’s inflections and make him laugh. 

He doesn’t laugh, but he does smile and cast a glance Cisco’s way. “Smooth recovery, Lieutenant.”

“I thought so. Computer, resume.”

They don’t speak again until they’re almost at the Bridge. “I’ll go first and you follow,” Cisco says quietly, and he sees Hartley nodding along with his words.

Fate is not on their side, because after Captain Harrison Wells dismisses the crew assigned to the simulation, he says, “Lieutenants Ramon and Rathaway, I’d like to speak to you.”

Caitlin happens to be walking by Cisco at that moment. “Thanks,” he hisses. Wells’s wheelchair is silent on the carpeted floor as he maneuvers himself between Cisco and the door. Hartley stands at Cisco’s shoulder, head down slightly.

“I don’t like to pry into the personal lives of my crew, but…” Wells begins.

Cisco blurts, “I guess Doctor Snow--” but Wells cuts him off with a wave of the hand.

“I haven’t heard anything from Snow,” he informs them. “I didn’t have to. You’ve been making enough of a public display.”

“That was the opposite of our intention,” Hartley says, much more tactfully.

Wells takes a deep breath and looks up at them. “You are Starfleet officers and I expect you to handle yourselves with more discretion. If you pursue a relationship, that’s your business, but you should consider yourselves under orders to use better judgement. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Hartley mutters, and Cisco echoes him. Wells moves away from the door, and they see themselves out.

***

“‘Under orders to use better judgement’? That’s pretty harsh.” Commander Barry Allen spears a chunk of squash on his fork. 

Cisco is in the mess hall, recounting his telling-off to his best friend, but reliving the experience is making him consider thumping his head on the table. “Tell me about it.”

“He’s right, though,” says Barry, swallowing mid-sentence. “Everyone has seen you and Rathaway off in some corner or hallway together.”

“No one on this ship can mind their own business,” Cisco says disparagingly, taking a potato off Barry’s plate.

Barry moves the plate away. “Get your own food.”

There’s a Betazoid ensign wearing a science uniform standing at the replicator, though, and she gives him a knowing look.  _ Stupid Betazoid telepaths _ , Cisco thinks as he leaves the mess hall. Then he gets an idea, and uses his combadge to “Open a channel to Lieutenant Rathaway.”

***

“I’m glad you could get the night off,” Hartley says. He’s still in his uniform, but his hair is messy and his glasses are smudged. If Cisco don’t know better, he would say Hartley is almost cute. “Tell me about the wine.”

Cisco shows him the bottle. “Ktarian merlot, 2282.”

Before Hartley can respond, his combadge chirps and someone says, “Engineering to Lieutenant Ramon.”

Rolling his eyes, Cisco acknowledges the call with a tap on his badge. “Ramon here.” 

“We have a problem with the plasma manifold. I thought you would want to take a look.”

“I don’t,” Cisco says firmly. “Lock it down; I’ll deal with it tomorrow”

“Aye, sir.”

“Ramon out.” He catches Hartley smiling at him. “Sometimes it’s nice to be the chief engineer.”

“Pass me a glass,  _ Chief _ .” 

Cisco does, helping himself to some of the potato salad. “This is surprisingly good.”

“Thanks, I replicated it myself,” Hartley jokes, ignoring the food and leaning against Cisco’s shoulder in what feels like affection.

“You’re too good for me,” Cisco returns. At the same time, his doorbell rings.

“Ignore it,” Hartley suggests, and Cisco is perfectly happy to, but it rings again a few seconds later.

Groaning, Cisco gets off the couch and unlocks the door with his keypad. It’s Barry.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Barry says sheepishly. He’s holding out a data stick that Cisco recognizes as the holoprogram he loaned Barry a couple weeks ago. “Hi, Hartley.”

“Barry. I’m not home.” Cisco closes the door, and turns off his doorbell for good measure. 

When he settles down on the couch, Hartley removes the combadge from his uniform and does the same for Cisco’s. “No more interruptions.”

Cisco serves himself more potato salad, and they’re quiet for a while, until he says, “I’ve been thinking about what the captain said. Maybe we were out of control.”

Hartley hums. “It did come on suddenly. What made you realize you liked me?”

Cisco thinks back to the moment, to being a bit loopy off space mushrooms and dark matter. They’d been in a shuttle together, on the way back from a dangerous away mission that had almost killed them. And finally, finally, being able to breathe and think, Cisco had said,  _ I’m glad we didn’t die. If we died, I wouldn’t be able to see you anymore. _ Hartley had snorted, in much more good humor than normal,  _ Yeah, like seeing me is the highlight of your day _ . Cisco had stayed quiet, realizing that, actually, seeing Hartley actually was the highlight of his day.

“Just a vibe,” he says eventually, and he can’t resist making a joke. “But I was exposed to massive amounts of dark matter then. Maybe that and the mycelium spores made me say things I didn’t mean.”

Hartley nods, setting his plate on the coffee table. “This whole thing could have been the dark matter comet messing with our hormones.”

“You never know,” Cisco tells him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder at the same time.

“I guess we should just—” Hartley stops as Cisco brushes a kiss over his lips— “call it off, then.”

“Thank God we realized in time.” And then Hartley closes the gap for real, and Cisco echoes his sentiment to himself.  _ Thank God I realized in time. _

**Author's Note:**

> Another creative take on the prompt by yours truly. Alongside The Flash, Star Trek is probably one of my favorite series, so I decided to combine my two great loves. Much of the dialogue is taken from the interactions of Tom and B'Elanna, a couple from one of the Star Trek series. I'm sure Cisco would appreciate being in a Star Trek-themed fanfiction. I REGRET NOTHING.
> 
> Comments are a writer's best friend!


End file.
